Several days a week, I read to someone who can no longer read for herself. Like most tasks that serve others, my reading to her serves me as much as it helps her. It's not just the good feeling I get from helping to brighten her day. I'm getting smarter.

As readers, we sometimes get stuck in a rut. I used to read everything, from biography to philosophy to classics to P.I. novels. In the last few years, I had pretty much dropped everything but mystery, the type of books I most enjoy.…

Today (Jan.31) starts my Blog Crawl (a pub crawl mixed with a blog tour). There are prizes to be had by commenting on the posts as I travel from blog to blog during the month of February. You can find the details at itsamysterytomepegherring.blogspot.com

As you follow the crawl, you'll be entertained with uses and abuses of the English language. Each week some lucky reader will win a copy of my February release, THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY (either print or e-book format, your…

You've heard of a pub crawl. Well, this is the same except it's not.

Same: You "crawl" from one place to another with a lot of other people and read my guest posts.

Different: It's virtual: no taxis, no traffic, no crowded rooms.

Same: You "travel" with like-minded people who are out for a good time.

Different: You'll never see them face-to-face.

Same: You meet new people, visit new places, and enjoy the trip.

Different: No hangover at the end.

Peg's Blog Crawl…

Here is the list of ebooks featured on mysterebooks.blogspot.com this week:

Monday

Title: L.A. HEAT

Author: P.A. Brown

Genre: Police Procedural w gay characters

Setting: Los Angeles

Tuesday

Title: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY

Author: Stacy Juba

Genre: Mystery/Romantic Suspense

Setting: New England

Wednesday

Title: JOURNEY TO DIE FOR

Author: Radine Trees Nehring

Genre: Mystery/senior citizen…

Ever since I embarked on this rewarding and yet sometimes challenging journey as an author, I find myself no longer enjoying the simple pleasures of reading a novel for the sake of enjoyment. Lately, every book I…

If fiction were fact, America would be flooded with maniacal, smart-but-evil murderers who lead the police on macabre chases that follow some twisted idea of order evident only to them, at least until some smart cop/P.I./amateur figures it out.

Reality is, of course, that most murderers are stupid, illogical, impulsive, and easily caught. A cop at a con I attended attested to this, citing the example of two drugged-out men in a shelter who got into a fight over a cheap pendant. One of…

I've posted a new video here, on my You Tube channel and my official web site. It's an extract from my radio interview with Rob Richardson of Write-Invite, on Express FM, in which I read from my latest Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel, Blood on the Sand…

A frustrating part of being a reader is that you're never, ever, done. People are always mentioning books that sound interesting, recommending authors whose work I might enjoy, or even handing me books with a "You've got to read this."

But there isn't time!

Although I never made it to a lot of the old classics, there are new classics, prize-winners, best-sellers, and unread works of authors I like lined up on my mental TBR list, waiting for my attention. I used to read…

One of the scary things about being published is that one might (probably will) get something wrong. There it is, for all the world to see, and it can't be fixed.

Something equally vexing to me is that people THINK you've got something wrong. One can't hunt them all down and argue the point, but--well, this one would like to.

It has been pointed out to me, twice now, that I used the word "dollar" in HER HIGHNESS' FIRST MURDER. Yeah, I did, in the idiom "squeeze the last dollar"…

I just returned to San Diego from a week in MD. On the return flight, which held about 80 passengers, I walked up and down the aisle serveral times. I noticed 4 Kindles and 2 i-Pads. My lightning like math skills tell me that's 7.5% (I think!). Not very high, but better than when I made the trip last year and saw but one lonely Kindle (in a more crowded plane). E-books are a coming wave, I think, but for now they are still merely a ripple. Has anyone else out there noticed anything…

One gets used to Overspeak in book blurbs. One must. Still, it bothers me, despite lowered expectations, that the term "hilarious" is used to describe the book I'm reading right now. It says on the cover: "This book is hilarious. I laughed till I wet myself." (Okay, I invented that last bit, but you know the sort of over-the-top comment I refer to.)

The book is not hilarious. It isn't even particularly funny. As a matter of fact, I don't think the author MEANT it to be funny. What it…